We like to think when it comes to difficult decisions we use reason and logic to weigh the pros and cons.

But the primitive part of our brain works against us. It lobbies for the option requiring the least amount of change.

You’re subtly influenced by its most effective tool: fear of the unknown and a desire for safety.

The option most familiar to you is weighted favorably in your mind, when compared to something new.

In other words, you’ll imagine scenarios where the safest option has a good outcome and the riskier option has a bad outcome.

This makes it hard to be objective because you’re not evaluating your options in a balanced way. Not only that, but your interpretation of what’s riskier depends on your emotional state at the time.

For example, if you’re thinking about selling your company and you’re having a stressful day, you’re likely to focus on the things that will go wrong if you keep it.

You could lose money in the future; an innovation could occur in your market, making your company less profitable; the economy could tank, driving down demand; a competitor could create a much lower-priced solution, and on and on.

When you think these thoughts, you feel anxious. Then, with your mind swirling, you compare the option of selling your business. It obviously seems more attractive, because you’ll avoid all those negative consequences you just imagined.

Depending on your beliefs and state of mind in the moment, the situation could be completely reversed, and you find yourself thinking you should keep the business, because what if you miss out on the potential for selling it for more money later?

You can’t win when you’re comparing apples to oranges. You feel stuck.

Here’s the best way I’ve found to make difficult decisions. Decide on purpose to evaluate your options as if each one has the potential to create an equally great outcome.

You’ll never know how the option you don’t choose might have turned out in the end. So, rather than comparing one option working out great with the other not working out at all, imagine both options working out beautifully and then decide which you prefer.

In other words, recognize that there is no right decision. No matter which decision you make, no matter what the future holds, you decide what you make it mean.

Decide to believe that if you keep the company you’re free, fulfilled, and wealthy, and if you sell the company you’re free, fulfilled, and wealthy.

Then choose which scenario you prefer.

In the end, the way your future plays out is entirely up to you. You make your decision the right one, by the way you think, feel and act.